God H Right That’s Know Oh For W I Oh testing here we [Applause] Go good afternoon afternoon please be seated uh it is a pleasure to be here with the brothers of alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated this afternoon I am uh greeting you from Long Beach California beautiful uh Southern District District of alpha alpha and the weather is not disappointing we have
Sunshine we know that today marks a very special occasion where the oldest and the coldest Fraternity in the universe the alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated has gathered today to ratify the election results for the 37th General president of alpha alp of Fraternity in our 118 years now uh as we approach the move
Towards December 4th of 2024 we know that only 36 men to date have served is the general president of alpha alpha we know that uh in this room today are many of our August leaders first and foremost I’d like to acknowledge our serving General board of
Directors I know that if you’re in the room if you please stand and be acknowledged we thank you for your continuing [Applause] service thank you brother but we also have in our midst today of those 36 men who have served prior uh to today or even including me
Uh we have a number of our past general president and I’ll take them in the beginning order of their service to be acknowledged we have present with us today the 33rd General president of alpha F Alpha Fraternity Incorporated Reverend Dr Herman Mason [Applause] Jr and we also have the 34th General
President of our dear fraternity brother Mark s Tilman here and last and certainly not least we have the immediate past general president the 35th General president of alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated uh our esteemed brother Dr Everett B Ward while we are amidst uh this throng
Of great Alpha men we do want to ackn knowledge our family and friends who are here with us as we are approaching this historic moment in the history of our fraternity uh today we have moved a great space and two men out of a throng of esteemed and qualified Brothers
Became nominees and placed into uh nomin the names of in order alphabetical order brother Lucen J matelis Jr and our dear brother Dr Gregory Parks these two nominees ran a robust campaign at the close of our general convention in Dallas leading into the culmination of the voting process December 31st
2023 and our entire Brotherhood voted on this group of men these two brothers and accordance in accordance to the general Constitution the general board of directors shall meet uh after the ensuing election in January and certify the accuracy of the election committee’s report and the com in the general
Election of the now Office of the 37th General president the general board of directors shall meet and actually seat the president General President elect upon ratification of that vote as a non- voting member of the general Board of Directors for a term ending December 31st of that year which will be
2024 Brothers the ballots have been cast and our brothers have spoken the results have been tabulated and it is my duty to report today the number of votes cast in this election was 14,820 votes the necessary number of votes for election is a simple majority which would be
7,424 votes the results are as follows and in alphabetical order brother Lucien J matelis Jr received 7,629 votes and our brother Dr Gregory s Parks received 7,200 votes with the authority invested in me by the Brotherhood and the general con Constitution and the bylaws of alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated I the
General president of alpha alpha Fraternity in Incorporated declare brother Lucen J matelis Jr the general President [Applause] elect thank you I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge brother Dr Gregory Parks as all of our brothers know and many of our family and friends General presidential elections in Alpha F Alpha
Is not a case for anyone of the faint of heart or lack of courage and tenacity brother Parks ran a spirited campaign one with Innovation and drive one that provoked thought and discussion within our Brotherhood and we thank you for being a purveyor and a catalyst for constitutional ideas for processes and
For Solutions as we continue to expand the experiment of Brotherhood together and we thank you for [Applause] that [Applause] and at this time I’d like to congratulate and invite brother Lucien J matelis Jr General President elect of alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated to provide some brief remarks and I will resume after the
General president-elect has spoken brother General President Elect good morning good afternoon or good evening for where every brother resides I want to say thank you thank you for taking this journey with me to the 37th General president I want to thank you for every message you sent every email that you sent every phone
Call that you made I thank you for any donation that you sent but more importantly I want to thank you for every endorsement that was public public and those that were private I want to thank you for every time you met me on the campaign Trail and most importantly
Regardless of who you voted for I want to thank you for being my brother to my thanks to my fellow Greeks that sent words of encouragement during this process and support especially all my spring 98 family I wanted to acknowledge at this time Brothers Brothers Hebrew Dixon Dennis Camp sen
And rodri’s mothers who started this journey in office you help make me a better brother brothers but at this time I want the brothers to rise and I want to thank Dr Gregory [Applause] Parks even though this part of the race is over your service and knowledge is
Still needed and we will not let you go thank you to the brothers of The Zeta Zeta Lambda chapter in St ALB New York the zai Lambda chapter in Frederick Maryland’s Ada chapter and Delta Zeta chapters T beta Lambda which was charted today in the in the island of
Haiti Brothers I want to thank you all for the chapters that supported me and endorsed me for without you I would not be here I want to give a special thank you to my campaign team there are too many to name but brother Goodson Brother Davis brother Buford and brother medley
And including my own Pastor brother Dr Dr Darren M Morton thank you you’re all the greatest team that a brother could ask for I look forward to sitting with the board of directors and learning under the current leadership because Brothers there is a general president until
January 1st 2025 and his name is Dr Willis L lonzer brothers thei because I don’t want to get you confused with anyone else Brothers we will follow the leadership of this General president as he leads us into the future of Alpha Brothers I excited about the future of
Alpha we can save young black boys and young black girls we can bring Brothers together and most importantly we can realize our mission statement and move Alpha to the Future as a ritual based organization that will hold the light High because Brothers we are the generation that our children need we are
The brothers that can save the world we will not do it alone but we will do it together God God bless you God bless Alpha F Alpha and God bless the United States of America thank you [Applause] Brothers thank you brother General President elect before we uh conclude
This process I would like to take the time to thank all of the staff at our General headquarters who has been helpful in providing support the Committees that have been ancillary but I would also be reticent to not walk away from this Podium without thanking our general uh committee on elections I
Want to thank brother Lucius Turner the general chairman and all of the men who served on that Committee of uh the general committee on elections please stand and be recognized for your good [Applause] work thank you your work is not unrecognized and we recognize again uh
Your commitment and time uh and time uh ridden work that you’ve done tirelessly and we thank you for that I do want to allow the general president elect to make one additional comment and I think he’ll appreciate me doing this so brother brothers when you’re giving when you’re giving one minute when
You’re giving one minute sometimes you try to blow through it and I want to thank my my life partner my best friend and my kids probably probably know this already and my children that put up with me for the past 18 months my wife Esther slack matelis brothers
Please give her a round of [Applause] applause we save marriages in Alpha FAA too let’s just keep it real um Brothers this concludes the announcement held for the purpose of declaring the winner of the election for the office of the 37th General president the general board of directors will meet tomorrow to adopt
The report from the general committee on elections and certify the results during the general board meeting this concludes our ceremony and we thank you for coming have a great evening [Applause]
source
